Hey everyone and welcome to my take on the Gyrofish!
I have seen on these forums, that some people (including myself to begin with) have had trouble with using the gyro. Either it dies at the beginning of the fight, or bad placement makes it hardly worth its points.
However, dont despair, i have summarised my takes on what the Gyro can give to any dwarf army, and also my take on what it can give to specifik dwarf army lists and different matchups. This will NOT be about the Gyrobomber. While the tactic section of the move part is identical for the gyrobomber and the gyrocopter, the danger section differs immensily
Now first, what equipment does the gyrofish have?
Its got a Bomb, a steamthrower and a badgun (sorry brimstone gun).
The Bomb is an S3 AP artillery die worth of hits, (misfire 1W to the Gyro) used for lone models or if you have to march anyway. Never, ever, use the bomb if you can get 3-4 hits from the steamthrower. The risk of misfire, and the ability to use it on a later date, is far more important than the chance of getting 8 or 10 hits. use it right before you redirect, if you cant get to use the steamthrower (see below)
A little bomb tip: try drop the bomb on a Daemon Prince, or other big flying lone unit. If you roll 2+ hits, the enemy charmed shield is activated! a neat little trick to make sure the charmed shield is completely useless.
The steamthrower is the bread and butter for killing hordes. seriously, its a bargain, S3 AP flame template after a 10'' move, whats not to like?. If you can get it up next to the enemy, a quater of his horde is sure to vanish from 1 template,
The last piece of junk (sorry equipment) is the brimstone gun. Dont ever take it, you will see why in the shooting section.
The gyro also has the upgrade for vanguard to half the units (rounded up). this is useful in a strollaz (max vanguard) but not so much in a gunline. Will be discussed further down.
Now to what the Gyro can do for the army.
Firstly, it has mobility. This opens up alot of possibilities, where the 3 most important are redirection, charging and deployment.
Redirection is simply, that you put one unit in front of an enemy unit, so that the enemy unit is forced to charge the intervening unit.
Redirection is good for our army, simply because, you sacrifice 80 points, so that the enemys unit with heroes (or just a unit you dont want into the flank) needs to charge the gyrofish, instead of your units or WM. This gives you more time to shoot, or an easier fight to win. Just remember, place the gyro so he is forced to close the door, so he cant overrun into anything afterwards! this will take some training to do, but ones learned, will destroy all deathbus lists.
A little fun tactic. Take almost impossable charges with your main killing blok, need to roll 10+? well, why not at least try it! and when you fail the chage, swoop in and redirect with a gyro! not only is it a good call against cav lists (because IF you make the charge, it changes games!) but you are now closer to the enemy, making the next charge easier, and he cant do anything about it!
charging is special with these. Only in the most dire (or fun!) instances do you want to charge into battle. However, what you want to do, is to charge the enemy out of the battle! the gyro is the best to make a fleeing enemy either be catched (move 10 + swiftstride!), or run out the edge of the battle. This is important, simply because of the way VP are given in the game. dont forget it!
Deployment is an immensily important part of a dwarven list. We dont have much mobility, so we tend to stay put. However, thats where the Gyrofish comes in! If you run 3 gyrofish, you get 3 drops, who can move 20'' pr. turn! This means you should always strive for 1 in each corner (12'' from the corner to avoid ranger shenanigans) and the rest put around center ( i tend to run 5 gyros, but 3 is also all good and well). Now, when the deployment is done, you have 2 gyros on the flank, who can be anywhere on your side of the battlefield in 2 marches, and the rest in the middle who can fly up and strike some mayhem.
What all this means is, that with 5 gyros, the enemy is forced to deploy at least some of their key units (unless its VC or similar many drop list) before you even put down your first Quareller or thunderes!
Now with the mobility sorted, the Gyrofish also is dangerous. This comes in 3 forms, the first is the redirection, as spoken of above, because of the tactical and strategic danger it possess, however, the other 2 are shooting and Toughness
Shooting: When you take some gyros, you want them to sit next to a unit and blast them with the template steamthrower. Never, ever, take the brimstone gun! its so bad, that on short range, you are not neccesarily getting a single shot through (1d3 = 2 shots average, 5+ to hit (BS3, short range, multiple shot) means 0.66 HITs, and we havent even started to wound yet!) trust me, against ogres you would rather want 4 autohit S3 AP, rather than 1d3 S5 AP shots. The only reason this maybe could be useful, is if you plan to march a gyrofish, drop a bomb, and redirect right away. At least it got quick to fire, i guess...
However, with the badgun out of the way, what makes the steamthrower so exeptional? well, for 80 points of worth, you can put down a template that will blast hordes. Simply, if you place a gyrofish beside a horde, or well, just any unit really consisting of 30+ Rank and File, you can easily get 20-25 hits, and if its typical T3 infantry, its around 11 wounds average! even the Organ Gun cant keep up with that! i have reduced a marauder horde from 60 models to 17 with 4 Templates! (witha bit less than average rolls!) while i kept redirecting it away, so my OG and canons and Grudges could focus on the Daemon Prince and warriors. however, the template is not only good for hordes, any infantry or massed unit will do! just remember to place your gyro, so that the templates end is still right inside the opposite end of the enemy unit, this will maximise hits.
Toughness Now the last danger the Gyro possess, is its Toughness. The Gyrofish is a T5 3W 4+ AS brick of metal. what this means is, that BS shooting will have a harder time killing this thing, than your WM's! (if S3 ofc). This also increase life expectancy for your WM! the enemy has to choose between shooting a canon or a gyro, instead of just shooting all the juicy WM. However, beside weathering shooting, it is also a formidable melee unit! not in the sense, that it can kill the enemy (it only got measly 2A), but that it can survive, and with LD9, probably stay put. A favourite tactic of mine, is to have the MRo Groth , and when the gyro charges into a flank of the enemy, it will stay there, even if the enemy wins by alot from banners and ranks. Now the enemy got the problem, should i reform to kill the gyro, leaving my flank exposed if i dont kill the gyro? This works wonder vs. enemies who are S3 (or S4-5 only for one round) since the first round of combat, you wont get so many attacks, and the next round, S3 only wound on 6s, and you got a 4+ AS. Just be beware, that it CAN go horribly wrong, so dont count on it! if you take this tactic, make sure to have a redirecting Gyro or other back-up plan handy! and do remember, never do this trick on a unit with heroes in it thats S5+ or have some fun sword of +3A!!! you will just sacrifice your gyro for no reason!!!
Some other fun charge tricks is:
Charge into a frenzy unit, now, if the gyro wins, the unit has lost frenzy! but if the frenzied wins combat, they are forced to run after the gyro (if it fails its LD check), putting the frenzied unit out of position. Even better if you charge in the flank, stay put one round, their turn fail the LD check. Now the frenzied unit has to pursue, giving you a nice counter charge in the flank, if you have put it properly.
Now with all the things the gyro is good at, what is it one should be aware of?
1. Placement
Probably the most important thing ever to consider with the gyro. If you place it badly, it will be shot, charged, or give cover to the enemy. before you move any gyro, look on the battlefield. How many of the enemy units can shoot your non-gyros? where can the enemy charge, and how long distance? what units do you want to shoot, and what is the LoF.
Now with all this settled, you know the possible locations you can put your gyro. Does the enemy have some bows too far away from your battleline? dont put a juicy gyro target right up in their range, unless you can give it hard cover og soft cover (going for 7's to hit) unless its absolutely necessary. Is it possible for the enemy chariot to charge you on a roll of 10 if you put your gyro a specifik spot? dont put it there, put it 2.5 inch further back, dont take the risk (unless, of course, you NEED to take the risk to win) Also, the worst thing i ever did, was to put a gyro in my LoF to the enemy Daemon Prince with 1W left. What a lovely -2 to hit hard cover penalty i got... needless to say, he didnt even get a scratch.
2. is it worth it?
As seen above, the gyro is good for a lot of things. It is the most versatile unit in all of our arsenal, and as such, when you fly up to redirect, is it then worth it? things to consider here, is. Do i want to get into melee with the enemy unit? can the enemy unit charge? Do i need my gyro later on? Will the gyro die anyway? What this shows is, if you have 2 gyros left, and the enemy got a 30 strong Banner of the World Dragon unit, just outside charge range, you dont want to redirect with a gyro just yet. You want to go up, steam it with your nonmagical attacks (or drop a bomb if outside move range), next round, redirect with 1 (and be sure to only move 10'' so you can steam) and steam with the other. then 3rd round, redirect and steam. Now the unit should be down to 10-15, and you can now probably take it on with the rest of your forces. however, in this scenario, you want to focus all your fire on enemy artillery and shooting! here, the only thing that can prove a problem for your strategy, is if the enemy shoots down one of your gyros, they arent invulnerable! (specially not against elven Bolt Throwers...)
3. Terror.
Now, a big problem to redirection is terror. If you are charged by a terror causing unit, and fail the LD test, you run IMMIDIATLY. what this means is, that you then cant redirect... with LD 9 its typically not a problem, but the time you fail it, you are doomed. so, just keep it in mind, and make sure either A: a terrorcauser cant charge you or B: your BSB is inside 12'' range.
Well, this is some general tactics, which can be used in almost any game. Just be sure to place the gyro well and make sure to make a firm tactical choice. It will take some practice, but i hope this have helped you 
Now, to the more specifik tactics.
The gyro is played almost the same in two very different lists. The Strollaz list, and the Gunline (hybrid or not) but with some key differences.
In the strollaz list, you want 5 gyros, 3 vanguard. The reason for this, is, that you cant take very much artillery, so you have to make up to it with gyros (who, as seen earlier, can work as OG's against massed units) also, when the fighting starts turn 1 or 2, you need the redirection power of these to make sure you wont be flank charged. And one of the most important part is, try to make it be inside Mro Grungni!!! you need them to survive! Also important is, if you cant catch the enemy, after they broke, you are lost. You need to catch them somehow or round them up. Since you dont have any shooting in the Strollaz list (or almost no shooting) the gyro is the fish for the job! even if the enemy rallied, there is nothing more frightening than a double (or triple!) gyrocharge into a unit of 4-6 model, who takes 4 S5 Attacks (even better with Hatred), and barely can wound back. That will surely send them running again! just be aware of steadfast! and at last, when the gyro is anyway up in the enemy backfield, charging some WM's is probably not a bad idea either, since you, with good luck, can take out 1 WM pr. combat round with some good overruning! however, this tactic is best with Hatred, since every little Wound counts, since you are sure, you cant kill the WM in one round, you have to make them fail their LD test (and a gyro stuck in combat for long is not out there steamthrowing and redirecting and picking up points)
In the Gunline list (hybrid or not) you can take 2 gyros if you need points elsewhere, but i have very good experience with 5 gyros (my meta is also filled with low drop armies, so i can deploy optimally with the 5 gyros). The gyros in this list should be used mainly for redirecting deathbusses, and secondarily shooting hordes with the steamthrower. No need to waste points on vanguard, since it probably only will put you out of position. However, 1 Vanguard placed correctly (like, flying up behind som impassable for instance) could work, since you then can put a threat in the backfield of the enemies lines at turn 1! just beware, that it probably will die to shooting, but if you force the enemy to shoot at your gyro instead of your WM, then its a good call! just beware the Point 2 Is it worth it? part! no need to give shortbows a free target! instead, if you can,put the gyros on the "right side" of the enemies units. What this means is, that you want to put your gyros in a position, so they almost surely get hard cover against enemy fire. its better to blast the enemy artillery away with your own canons and let the BS shooting get a major penalty against your gyros (unless its against empire or another dwarf, since your own canon then is probably gone for good before you get to use it or only after one shot!) in this list, the gyro is good at thinning out numbers and making sure one big unit never will see fighting (and when it does, its probably because you charged it! remember, you can charge, and if the charge failed, you can just choose to redirect afterwards!!!) in short, the gyro will give the gunline list a control of the tempo of the game, that no other dwarf unit can. If you controll which unit cant fight this round, you can focus on other units with your artillery, since you have a whole other shooting phase to focus on the big dangerous unit! one game i obliterated everything on the opponents board in 2 turns, exept his deathbus of 6 charecters. i only lost 3 gyros, so had 2 left, and by turn 4, with my last redirection, i could shoot my canon against it with no LoS rolls needed! This controll of when and where you fight is priceless in a gunline.
Now, thats my take on the Gyrofish so far. remember, the gyro is NOT a WM hunter! it CAN do the job, but it is far more efficient in other jobs on the battlefield! Any more suggestions are welcome!!!
Edited by Narnor, 04 December 2014 - 11:53 AM.
